Laura Secord.

She was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812.  In short, she walked like 30 kilometres to help save our lovely Niagara Peninsula from being taken over by the Americans via a secret attack.  She wasn't afraid to push herself for the greater good.  Her bravery was stunning and still stuns people to this day.  So how the hell did her name end up on a retail candy store?  "In 1913 Frank P. O'Connor began a small, Toronto-based candy business selling hand-made chocolates.  He adopted the name Laura Secord, after the Canadian heroine because she was an icon of courage, devotion and loyalty."

Why am I writing and reading about Laura Secord?  Well, her name was familiar to me from a very young age, but not because of her heroism.  It wasn't until grade 6 that I learned of her amazing bravery.  Then I reverted back to primarily thinking about those yummy chocolates.

Today wee man and I were at the Burlington Mall and he asked for an ice cream (even said please).  I complied with his ingratiating grin because he had an 'alligator in his throat', which is his way of saying he's got a sore throat.  As we were sitting on the bench in front of Laura Secord I started to tell her story to Callum.  The more I spoke, the more I thought of our life together.  Now, I can't imagine I'll ever have the opportunity to be as brave and heroic as Laura, but the least I can do is be the best person I can, for myself, and for that twinkly-eyed wee man who treats me like I'm a hero every day.

Exercise

40 minutes on elliptical (- 433 calories)

Weight circuit; 12 reps on each machine, with the inner and outer thigh machines added (20 reps each)

Enough puke inducing tummy exercises that I had to channel the strength of Daniel on the Biggest Loser.  I wanted to quit before my reps were done and again, I thought of Daniel's beet red face puffing away at 7 miles per hour on the treadmill (something I've not yet been able to do) and I pushed forward to completion!  Thanks, Daniel.

Food

1 cup Raisin Bran with 1% milk

1.5 litres water

2 sticks bubblemint gum

Tim Horton's egg salad sandwich on whole wheat, with lettuce.  The cool thing was, this Timmy's hardly puts any mayonnaise in the mix.

20 small grapes

Several cuppas

5 'cookies' from a 100 calorie bag

1/2 tin of beans in tomato sauce

Large handful of oven chips, including a few sweet potato oven chips

1 slice 12-grain bread

2 tsp light butter

The chocolate 'Secord' from the top of wee man's ice cream & a spoonful of ice cream.

Now that I write down my food, I realize that I must've been craving protein today.  I had a bit of a difficult mood day today.  I felt snappy, you know, a bit PMS-y.  There were several times when I craved something naughty because I was feeling emotional, but I forced myself to work through it by reasoning out my behaviour.  The grapes in the car really helped!  If they hadn't been there, I'm not sure if I could've resisted a trip to Starbucks.  

Speaking of Starbucks, I used to love the skinny vanilla latte and now I can't seem to enjoy it.  The very odd thing is, now that I've cut back on Splenda and aspartame I can really taste it in food and drinks and I don't like it!  People have always moaned about how they can taste artificial sweeteners and I've poo-pooed them, but I think I'm becoming one.

As an aside, initially when I bought wee man his ice cream I chose 'crunchy chocolate chip', one of my favourite ice creams ever.  He hated it.  He's a vanilla guy.  The more vanilla the better. That's cool 'cause I think he must be really tasting the ice cream and not just the sweet - clever wee man!  I went back and bought him a vanilla ice cream and then was left holding the crunchy chocolate chip.  It spoke to me.  It called to me and cried when I didn't answer.  It just about killed me, but I binned it.  One small taste and I knew I wanted to devour it, but apparently, not badly enough.  Yay me!  That was a major milestone in my journey.

What a great way to say goodnight.

Cupcake

xo